


Playing on the grass

by Rowlett



Category: Granblue Fantasy (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, F/M, Fluff, a little of no rain no rainbow as well, and seox's fate episodes, except not because of shenanigans but still, spoilers for the 6th anniversary event
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2020-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-01 05:26:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23149987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rowlett/pseuds/Rowlett
Summary: How do you try to help your friends with something that can't be realized anymore?
Relationships: Djeeta & Vyrn (Granblue Fantasy), Djeeta/Six | Seox (Granblue Fantasy)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 49





	Playing on the grass

_“Did you know? There’s a new kid in our village.”_

_“I heard about it. It was that man that came here with him, right? But he vanished as soon as he left the poor thing…”_

_“It would have been nice if he could have at least said ‘hi’ to us.”_

_“The people that saw him in the middle of the night said he was in a hurry. Didn’t want to endanger us, or something…”_

_“Endanger us with what, pray tell?”_

That was the general conversation going on in Zinkerstill at that morning. One of the most famous islanders, the man that left years ago, finally came back to his own home. Only to disappear again in the same night, leaving behind a small erune boy that looked like as if he was afraid of his own shadow.

Djeeta didn’t process that information properly, or rather, she didn’t want to. She had spent most of her last years with only Vyrn as a close companion and all the other villagers were adults that could only help her with food and clothes. They weren’t exactly company for a kid. They were boring too. Aaron liked the adults, but it’s not like only one kid could spend his time playing around with someone else.

That’s why the news of her father coming back home for one night only to drop a stranger kid without even talking to her was too painful to process.

“Heeey, partner,” Vyrn said, trying to cheer her up with headpats, “Let’s see the other kid? Maybe he knows where your dad is.”

“I dunno....” She was pouting now. It felt more like a sigh. “What if he says my dad disliked me?”

“What heavy thoughts for a seven year old kid…”

Djeeta looked behind her, only to find the old grandma that used to teach martial arts in the island. She was someone that knew almost everything, from swords to bows. Besides her father, Djeeta thought that old grandma was the most mysterious thing in the entire island.

“You should enjoy your life, my dear,” continued the old woman, “Why don’t you try to make more friends now? I’m sure they would love your company.”

The younger girl was looking at the floor, unsure of how she should answer that. Before she could come up with anything, the grandma gave her a small box.

Djeeta took it without hesitation, “Grandma, what is this?”

“It’s food for the boy,” she said. “He isn’t eating anything we give him and is only looking at the window. Maybe you can help him with that? You are near his age, after all.”

With a smile, the old woman left the scene, leaving Djeeta who was holding the simple white box. Vyrn tried to smell the contents, “Whoa, it’s yummy, I can tell! Let’s go Djeeta, if he refuses we can always eat it in his place!”

She laughed at her partner’s antics, “That’s rude, Vyrn. The food is not for us.”

She was looking forward to it, at least. She would rather get a new friend or some food. Either way, it would be a win.

… Or, that’s what she thought. As soon as she arrived at the room he was in, Djeeta knew what the other villagers meant by the boy being anti-social. He didn’t even look at her when she gave her greetings. That was alright, they were a bunch of strangers after all, but what set her off (or rather, Vyrn) was how she approached him with the food and he immediately slapped it from her hands, making everything roll around or be splashed on the floor. The next reaction was looking at the window from his bed, hugging his legs as if nothing had happened. If Djeeta didn’t hurry to the outside of the room, Vyrn would have bitten the boy.

“What’s his problem?!” Yelled the lizard. “We bring food to him and he almost hurts you like this! That’s why no one wants to be his friend here!”

Vyrn kept yelling about their new islander but everything that Djeeta could do was massaging her hand. That slap hurt, almost as if it was a knife instead of his hands.

-*-

Djeeta woke up on her bed and her stomach was killing her.

Dreaming about food was not a good sign, apparently. She knew she shouldn’t have skipped dinner last night, now her stomach will be angry at her until breakfast.

“Maybe if I go to the kitchen, I’ll at least have some coffee…” she said, begrudgingly trying to get up. Sandalphon’s coffee was enough to wake up a dragon if he wanted.

She couldn’t remember much of the dream, to be honest. She knew it was about her childhood, no one in Zinkerstill was as tall as they were in the dream. Not anymore, at least.

There was no one in the kitchen. Figures, she thought. After the events of the last year, Sandalphon was now sleeping like everyone else in the ship. She was satisfied with that result, especially because Lyria wouldn’t be so worried about the angel anymore, even if he didn’t need sleep anyway. But that meant she wouldn’t get morning coffees at unholy times anymore. They were always trading a turbulence for another.

With nothing else to do and with her stomach begging to be filled with something, anything, Djeeta decided to be a master chef and make herself a sandwich. She wasn’t Ladiva, but she knew she could at least make a quick snack out of the ingredients in the kitchen and wouldn’t bother the Lowain brothers later on. It was only cheese, bread, and maybe some milk. “What could go wrong?”, she hummed.

“Did something happen?”

The sudden voice gave her a fright and before they knew it, the bread and cheese that were supposed to be for the sandwich were all on the floor.

With a small yelp, Seox quickly ran to get it, but it was too late, at least for the food. “I’m sorry,” he said, putting the wasted food in a nearby trash can, “I didn’t mean to surprise you.”

“Oh, it’s alright,” she waved her hands in front of her face, as if trying to give the message that nothing of value was lost, “I can always make something else. But Seox, what’s up? Why are you awake so early?”

“I had… a weird dream,” he said while looking at the corner of the kitchen. “I was about to ask you the same thing, but I noticed that your hand…”

Djeeta was curious about the dream, because the same had happened to her, but as soon as he said the last part, she took a glance at her hands only to see her right one bleeding, “Whoa, how did this happen?!”

It wasn’t a deep cut, but it was still concerning. Before she could wash her hands, Seox was trying to stop the bleeding with some tissues - there was a box of first-aid kit near him, “Accidents are always happening in the kitchen,” he explained with a small smile. It was still weird, in a good way, to see half of his face in an attire that wasn’t the Eternals’ uniform. “The brothers working here still didn’t recover from Valentines.”

Oh, right. Katalina’s chocolates must have knocked the daylights out of the Lowain brothers again. “Thank you. I don’t know how I got hurt, though. Maybe it happened in the middle of the night…”

Seox said a small ‘hn’, slowly preparing a curative on her hand.

-*-

The days went by and the boy still didn’t speak with anyone. At most, he would just nod his head and finally eat what the islanders were bringing to him. Vyrn said that it was about time he stopped being spoiled, after all he would starve if he didn’t eat anything.

But he still didn’t leave the room.

“That must suck,” said Djeeta, looking at the window that was supposed to be of his room, “He is alone over there.”

Vyrn saw the other adults walking around the village. If they were not in trouble, most part of them would just leave them alone. Djeeta was always independent like this. And they were behaving in the exact same way with the boy. After he left some of his steam over his partner getting hurt, Vyrn calmed down considerably in regards to their new companion, “Do you want to go visit him?”

Djeeta looked at Vyrn, from her position on the grass. They weren’t doing anything important, just laying on the grass and waiting for lunch. Maybe she could visit him. Maybe they could be friends, now that he calmed down a bit. Or maybe she would get hurt again.

“Hey, don’t worry!” said Vyrn in a cheerful tone, “If he gets violent again, I’ll bite him until he at least says ‘hi’ to us!”

The young girl nodded her head. She looked around for Aaron to see if he wanted to talk with the boy too, but he was nowhere to be seem. Probably helping his parents, she thought. A small bit of jealousy hit her heart. He could be with his parents while she and Vyrn were alone…

Djeeta smacked her cheeks with both hands and got up, “Ok Vyrn, first of all, let’s get prepared!”

Vyrn smiled with her enthusiasm but his face was soon engulfed with confusion when he saw Djeeta carrying a huge apple pie, “Hey, what’s that for?”

“They said the best path towards a man’s brain is through his stomach, right? Maybe we can be friends over this pie!”

“It’s ‘towards a man’s heart’, Djeeta! And won’t granny be angry at us for taking away her pie?”

“I’m sure everything will be fine!”

It started better than their last time, that was for sure. Djeeta and Vyrn knocked on the door, and noticed it wasn’t locked. The lack of answer was worrying, but nothing that would stop them at that rate. The boy was still on his bed, looking at the sky. When she first saw him, he was full of bandages, almost as if he just came out of a fight. Now most part of them were gone and she noticed how he truly was near her age. What could have happened to make a kid become likes this, Djeeta wondered. She didn’t spend much time thinking about the possibilities and approached the erune slowly.

“Hi,” she said.

No answer.

She didn’t want to give up yet though. “My name is Djeeta. This one is Vyrn. We…” she gulped, “we heard that my father brought you here?”

 _That_ took a reaction out of him. His ears moved as if he wanted to jump, but he just slowly moved his head on her direction. Djeeta gave her best smile at that. Their strategy was working.

“He left the island some years ago,” explained Vyrn, “We’ve been living together since then. And that means we get to have all the delicious food made by the adults of the island! Like this apple pie!”

The pair gestured at the food that was now on the table of the room, near the door. The boy kept looking between their faces and the apple pie, almost as if he was waiting for something else.

“We brought this to you,” she said, still smiling, “Or rather, do you want to share with us? It’s really yummy.”

The loud sound coming from his stomach was enough confirmation that yes, he wanted to eat that pie, thank you very much.

-*-

“Happy anniversary, everyone!

“Happy anniversary!”

The decorations were all different and the food came from all kinds of places, but the Grancypher crew was united with only one wish, of commemorating their six years of travels and health to all of its members. Noa was especially happy with how good the ship was and, if his word together with Rackam’s were to be trusted, the happiest ‘person’ at that moment was the Grandcypher itself.

Djeeta never considered herself a leader of all those people. All that she could do was to give instructions and be the face on formal occasions, but she wouldn’t go and make rules over how someone should live their lives inside of the ship. As long as they followed basic decency and didn’t hurt other people, of course. That’s all she could ask for.

This type of mindset, however, changed drastically every year around the time of the anniversary of the foundation of their crew. If you needed help, there she was, trying her best to make everything go smoothly. It was always the same thing even in other holidays. No one would ever know how hard she worked in both Valentines and White Day, making sure every member got chocolate and didn’t feel alone. Or around Christmas. Or their birthdays. And as always, she made everything and everyone work together because she wanted to see the crew members happy, and one of the best things for that was food. Ladiva and the… well, what was left of the Lowain bros were all excited to cook something special for the crew. 

Meanwhile, Elmott had different thoughts and just wanted his captain to rest.

_“The ones responsible for cooking are me and Ladiva. And maybe the Lowain brothers, once they come back from whatever hell they are in. But you did enough, captain, so you should rest. If you are hungry, have this pie that I prepared for you. Now, shoo. Get out.”_

Djeeta gave a big sigh while explaining the situation that made her angry at the kitchen door being almost slammed at her face. The person sitting with her at the table was quite amused at her pout.

“He is right, though,” said Seox, “You need to rest. It’s been some days already, and you guys just came back from the… situation with the Magasin family.”

“Yes, but I have fun helping out,” another sigh, “Well, Elmott banned me from the kitchen and gave me this pie. Do you want to share?”

Seox was now using his full mask. The consequences of having to be around so many people in a hurry, Djeeta thought. However, the movement of his ears was enough to show her that he was surprised at that question. She couldn’t see his eyes but his timid voice was enough to know that he was hesitant, “Can… can I eat it? I mean, it’s a gift for you…”

“Hey, hey, I wouldn’t be offering if I didn’t want to!” She said, “Besides, Vyrn and Lyria are helping out Jamil and Ladiva at Raduga, and they said they will have tons of good food over there! But I’m banned from helping today, so let’s make those traitors jealous with our apple pie!” Her voice made a bad impersonation of the villains she had seen on her travels, almost as if she wanted to sound like a criminal planning their next move of eating a pie alone that Vyrn would love to eat later. Seox couldn’t help but chuckle at that.

“Shouldn’t you at least save a slice for them?”

Her pout got bigger, “I should, yeah…”

-*-

It didn’t take too long for them to be friends with the new boy. Although Djeeta would say that ‘friends’ was too strong of a word to describe someone that was too shy to look at her face properly, but she was very happy to start a dialogue with him.

“So, you don’t know which island you came from?” She asked. Vyrn was equally surprised.

“No,” he said, looking at the floor with ears downcast, “I only know I came from the Karm clan, but I… I never left the island before. I don’t know how to reach it from here.”

To say Djeeta was disappointed was a understatement. Her face was sad, but she didn’t want to cry in front of her new friend (well, she would use that word because what else were they supposed to be?).

But she really wanted to follow the footsteps of _his_ travels. Maybe with that, she would find _her father_ …

“Hey, it’s alright Djeeta,” Vyrn wasn’t good with headpats. His paws were too tiny. “I’m sure we’ll find your pops someday, don’t give up!”

“I’m sorry…” said the boy.

She shook her head, “No no, it’s fine, truly! Or… it’s not _fine_ really, but it’s not your fault.”

“But still…”

“Aaah, that’s enough, enough!” She yelled, slapping her cheeks with her hands, “Enough with doom and gloom, let’s go fish or play in the lake, erh…!”

She paused and stared at the other boy. For a second, both him and Vyrn got worried. She just smiled sheepishly after a while, “Haha… I just noticed I don’t know your name. You know ours but how should I call you?”

The erune looked at Vyrn, as if to confirm if that was truly directed at himself or not, “Me?”

They both nodded.

“My name is--”

-*-

Her sleep was interrupted by a huge thunderstorm.

Djeeta was always thankful to Rackam. Both Rackam and Noa, actually, because without them the Grandcypher would most likely have been destroyed again at that point. The presence of a good helmsman and the Primal Beast of ship blessings truly saved them all.

It didn’t save her night of sleep, though.

With how loud the thunderstorm was, she figured she wouldn’t be able to sleep anytime soon. Maybe that was the price that karma wanted her to pay. Better the captain, full of energy, than one of the kids aboard the ship. Or Lyria. Goodness gracious, no one wanted to see Lyria in the morning after a bad night of sleep. It was like seeing a puppy crying.

That being said, there wasn’t much to do besides getting scared of the lights outside and cover herself with her sheets. So, Djeeta decided to spend her time at another place and maybe distract herself until the storm was over.

… In the end, there wasn’t much to do besides walking near the deck. They did make some magic the other day to protect them against the rain so hopefully it was still on, even at night.

“In the end, it’s not fun at all, with all those clouds out there.”

“Indeed. Unless you like to see the thunder.”

This time she didn’t have a fright over his voice. She smiled at him, “Couldn’t sleep?”

Seox was still staring at the sky, as if contemplating the storm, “It was too loud.”

“I’m surprised there aren’t kids awake as well. Maybe we have to thank Joy for that!”

Djeeta was joking, because she wasn’t sure if the young bell was programmed to absorb bad dreams. She would need to ask Mahira one day. However, the friend by her side apparently couldn’t see the joke behind her words.

“Maybe Kleshas are present in dreams as well? I remember all the negative energy inside of Mugen’s dream too…”

Djeeta stared at him, unsure how to respond. She decided to go for the simple answer, “No no, that was a joke, I don’t think that baby bell can go inside of our dreams yet…”

A beat of silence, and them he stares as well at her, a serious expression on what could be seen of his face, “Really? Phoebe told me he could. In fact, he has been doing this since the year started.”

Wait, what. “Wait, what?! What about our privacy?! Is no one talking about rules and stuff with Joy?! I’ll--”

Djeeta heard a chuckle and her face became red, not knowing how to reply until Seox apologized, “I’m sorry, that was a joke as well.”

She should be happy with that, because how rare was that? Seox making jokes that weren’t meant to make fun of Seofon? That only meant he was getting more comfortable to letting himself be open to other people. She knew that, but her hand still went to pínch his cheek, “Is Seofon rubbing off on you?”

The combo of both his cheek being pulled and the half of his face full of pure disgust at that comment didn’t have a price. 

She was about to apologize for the joke, but then light came into view. The rain had stopped, and the night sky was finally clean. The pair stopped the small teasing to look at the sky.

It was full of stars.

That made Djeeta remember something. “Hey, Seox, there’s something I wanted to ask you about.”

He gave a nod on her direction. She continued, “Which one do you prefer?”

“Which one…?” He asked.

“Which name do you want to be called out? Seox or Xing?”

A pause. Judging from his look towards the floor and the hand on his chin, he didn’t gave much thought about that. “Anything that is good for you, captain.”

That stuff again. As if she didn’t have to deal with Sandalphon calling her Singularity for an entire year… “The same goes for you too, you know?”

“What?”

“You can call me by my name if you want.”

From the way his cheeks became red, that caught him by surprise. Djeeta observed how he tried to hide the uncovered half of his face with his hands and she felt bad at that. Maybe it was too soon? There weren’t many people that called her by the name in the crew, only ‘captain’, and she knew they were just used to it, but she wanted at least her close friends to be different. But maybe that was being too self-centered…

Djeeta was about to apologize when Seox coughed on his hand, “R-right. Then, anything that is good for you, D-djeeta.”

She would still apologize and discuss this later, but the hug she wanted to give him at that moment came in first place.

-*-

“Hey, Vyrn…” Xing called the small self-proclaimed dragon, “Where’s Djeeta? She said she wanted to spar a little today…”

“Ah, about that…” Vyrn was with a sad face. Xing knew that was a bad sign, that pair was always cheerful no matter what, “She heard some of the adults talking about their families coming over for the holidays and then got sad. She ran away from the gathering and I still couldn’t find her…”

Oh no… Xing had forgotten about the only thing that could hurt her, a mention of her family. Or lack of one. No matter how close both him and Vyrn would get to her all those years, they wouldn’t ever be able to substitute the people that were supposed to be here with her.

If only he knew about that beforehand. If only that man spoke about his circumstances, maybe he could have convinced him to go back to his own home…

“Hey Xing, stop dozing off!” His mind was brought back by Vyrn yelling near his ears. “Let’s split up and search for her!”

“I think we have bigger chances if we are together,” he said, “You can fly, and I can fight monsters. That will be a bigger help than separating ourselves.”

“Ah, you’re right…” said Vyrn, his face downcast, “Sorry, I’m just…”

“Worried, I know,” said Xing, with a little smile on his face, “I am too. Let’s go find her.”

The search didn’t take too long, all things considered. Zinkerstill was still a small island and Xing has spent three years already in it. Maybe there were some places that were not natural for him ( _what even is around the deeper parts of the forest that could make the adults forbid them from trespassing?_ ) but that work was quite easy when Vyrn was together with him.

Besides, Djeeta was still tiny. She couldn’t run too far. And that theory was right when they found her crying alone on a trunk of a tree collapsed on the floor.

Xing wouldn’t ever be used to that sight. Djeeta was always cheerful and energetic. It was thanks to her that he got enough courage to leave that small room after he got in Zinkerstill. She was the first friend he had of his age, when everything he knew about the world was cold and lonely. Living together with her and Vyrn was the opposite of that, it was warm and inviting. Seeing the lively girl, that gave him so much joy, crying alone wouldn’t ever feel right to him.

The two of them approached her, slowly. Xing took his time to sit by her side while Vyrn tried to be on her lap. She let them.

“I’m sorry,” she said between sobs, “I shouldn’t have…”

“Hey, it’s alright,” said Vyrn, “We know how hard it is for you.”

Xing put a hand on her shoulder, a small act of comfort that he wasn’t used to, “You can cry all you want,” he said, “We’ll be here with you.”

Djeeta tried to open her mouth to say something, but she couldn’t do it before her cries got worse. They were in the middle of the forest and there weren’t monsters nearby, so it was safe enough to let it out. Xing and Vyrn just tried to assure her with gentle pats on her back and head, until she was satisfied.

After a while, the sobs started to cease. Now everything that was left was her runny nose and small hiccups. 

Djeeta tried to clean her face with her dress, it wasn’t working much, “I’m sorry…”

“Like we said, you don’t need to apologize,” said Vyrn.

“It’s just… did he truly… forget about me…?”

One image came back to Xing’s mind, one that has happened between him and that man many times, “I don’t think so.”

“H-huh?”

Xing felt a little embarrassed with both Djeeta and Vyrn staring at him, but he continued, “That man, he was always looking at the sky, in the same direction. He seemed sad, every time we did that,” he said, holding her hand as if trying to assure Djeeta of how serious he was. “I’m sure he must have had his reasons, he didn’t forget about you, he was always thinking about you! I… I don’t know why he left, but…”

The words weren’t coming anymore, and Xing felt unsure at that time. Maybe that would only make things worse. Maybe Djeeta would feel terrible over her father looking after a kid that murdered people over his own daughter. Maybe--

“T-thank you, Xing.”

He looked at her, “Huh?”

“I said thank you,” she was trying to smile in the middle of what was left of her cries. Her nose was a mess and her eyes were red, but her smile was the same radiant one as he knew, “I wish I could meet him again, so we could ask him.”

“Yeah,” said Vyrn, giving pats on her head. He still wasn’t good at it, “That would be nice.”

-*-

Seox woke up feeling some warmth in his hand. Those dreams, he was having them almost every day now. It wasn’t as if he wasn’t happy about them, especially because he caught himself thinking about the possibilities of growing up together with Djeeta and Vyrn ever since they came back from Stardust Town. But this whole situation was not normal.

And honestly, if he could go on without seeing Djeeta’s crying face in his dreams, he would be really thankful.

Last night, he made a joke over Joy and Phoebe and how they could enter dreams, but considering how his crew members had special powers, he wouldn’t be surprised if this was truly their doing. Whoever they were.

But who could be doing this? Obviously it wasn’t with ill intentions, but it wasn’t as if they knew about his past.

The erune decided to ignore his suspicions and just get ready for breakfast. Maybe he would think about this better if he had a full stomach.

All things considered, it was incredible how he got used to the Grandcypher crew. At first, he would rather stay alone and just observe the place. Djeeta, together with Lyria and Vyrn, were the ones that were always asking for him to socialize, to the point of almost carrying him by force to join the others at the christmas parties.

He raised his hand to where his heart was and sighed. At first, they were an annoying group but he grew really fond of them. Even if half of the members of the ship had fun with taking off his mask. One day he wouldn’t need it in order to be calm around people, and they all would… they all would most likely find something else to tease him about, for sure.

And now, here he was, getting ready to eat breakfast in a place that would be full of people. He took his full mask and left his room. Maybe this wasn’t so bad after all. He would need to remind himself later of at least joining Tweyen for dinners, now that he was trying to leave his life of isolation behind.

Once he had finally reached the communal area, his eyes searched for Djeeta. His face flushed once he caught himself, but he had a good reason for that besides the company. He needed to ask her about those dreams. Maybe Vyrn too, if he was up to it.

However, he couldn’t find her, which was weird considering she was a morning person. Lyria and Vyrn were together with Rosetta and Katalina, eating together. He wasn’t very close to the other two members, but he approached them even so.

“Oh, good morning Seox!” Said a cheerful Lyria.

“Hey Masked Wonder, good morning!”

He ignored Vyrn’s nickname. “Good morning…”

“What’s wrong?” Lyria asked, “Couldn’t sleep well?”

Djeeta was right, Lyria’s sad face was like a crying puppy sometimes. “No, I’m just looking for the captain. Isn’t she with you two?”

“She spent the night busy and is trying to recover her sleep,” said Katalina, “Is it something urgent?”

“Or, maybe another mission from the Eternals? Is Seofon inviting us for the beach again?”

Seox looked at Vyrn and resisted the urge to ask what ‘again’ meant, “No, nothing that important. It’s about a… type of magic that has been around the ship and I was curious, that’s all.” His tone changed to something lower, “Is she alright?”

Lyria giggled at his question, making him raise an eyebrow, “She’s fine, don’t worry! She’s just doing a super important project and now she’s tired, but she will be up in no time once it’s over!”

That didn’t help his worries much, if said project was taking hours of her sleep. Those three mused a bit about what was asked initially about magic and were back to eating breakfast, giving space to Seox to sit beside them. Magic was not their area, that was Io’s, Rosetta’s best friend. 

Talking about Rosetta, that woman was staring at him quite strongly now, “Is there something wrong?” He asked.

She gave a smile, one that people couldn’t figure out what she was thinking, “Nothing much. We’ve heard from Lecia about your past. So, that man saved you when you were young?”

Lecia. Right. That explained how that information leaked to whoever was manipulating his dreams. It wasn’t as if that was a secret he wanted to keep but she really needed to keep that bad habit in check.

( _“Whoa, Lecia, are you getting sick? That was a big sneeze.”_

_“I’m sorry, Miss Monika. Maybe I got some kind of flu?_

_“I sure hope not, we have tons of work waiting for us.”_ )

“I’m sorry if it looks as if I’m asking too much,” said Rosetta, and she sounded truly apologetic. Her smile was different now. It was a sad one. “It’s because we don’t have many people that knew him before he disappeared. If you don’t mind, would you like to trade stories about him sometime in the future?”

That… wasn’t what he was expecting.

It wasn’t what he was expecting at all.

“I…” he said hesitantly, “I would love to.”

The other members of the table smiled at that exchange. It was quite a good atmosphere to go with the pancakes of the day.

-*-

It was in the middle of their sparring session around the lake that Djeeta gave him a new pair of gauntlets.

Xing stared at the weapons, almost as if they were going to bite him, “For me?”

Djeeta nodded, an eager smile on her face, “Try them on!”

They fit perfectly in his hands. Of course, they weren’t at the same quality of the weapons of the Karm Clan because Djeeta and Vyrn didn’t have much money and other objects could only get so far on an island such as Zinkerstill. But the feeling he had at that moment, with such a simple material, was much stronger, much warmer than anything he ever got back at his hometown.

He lowered his head, still staring at them, “Thank you…”

Djeeta was still smiling. He would curse later that annoying ball of light in the sky, for being in the way of him seeing the actual sun properly. “I’m the one that needs to thank you! For the other day, I mean.”

He gave a look at them, confused.

“She spent every coin she had to buy those from the travelling merchants that come here every month,” Vyrn explained, “We did some jobs to save it too! I helped a lot, right, partner?”

“Right!” She said, “I know gauntlets are not enough if we compare with how you cheered me up the other day. About the stuff with my dad, when you two were together. But I hope one day I can thank you enough for it.”

That was supposed to be his line, though, “I didn’t do much… I only told the truth.”

“Still,” she said, embarrassed and looking at her feet, “It meant a lot for me. There weren’t many adults that tried to comfort me about that. They all just said for me to forget him. Besides Vyrn, you were the only one that said he didn’t give up on me. S-so…”

At that point in time, Xing was already using a mask to cover his entire face. But he still could see hers and how embarrassed she was.

Since words were difficult for the both of them, he decided to just get Vyrn and Djeeta together and embrace them, trying to convey his gratitude at the pair. That would be enough, for the moment.

-*-

That last dream was shorter than the ones that came before.

It was the weekend, and most part of the crew was either visiting family members in other islands or taking their deserved rest. It was the perfect time to go and ask a certain someone about recent events. Those thoughts were what led Seox to the front of Raduga’s entrance.

The bell gave the sign of his presence, and Seox noticed Jamil was nowhere to be seem. That was natural, Seox thought. Knowing Ladiva, she wouldn’t let the younger boy work extra hours around the time that he was supposed to be resting. However, that presented another problem - hopefully the person that he was searching for was around. She wasn’t the social type, after all. Just like him.

Seox noticed the head of blond hair and approached the person sitting in one of the tables of the bar, “Morphe, is that you?”

The younger boy looked up at him, surprised and happy to see his friend, “Oh Seox, nice timing! The captain was looking for you. She said she has something to give to you.”

“Something to…? I’ll talk to her later. But Morphe, did you see your sister somewhere?”

The face of the other boy suddenly got tense, almost as if that caught him by surprise. Fortunately for the atmosphere, Ladiva soon came from the kitchen and with the answer, “Oh, if you are looking for Phoebe, I asked her to bring out some ingredients for me! We are preparing the anniversary dinner, after all.” 

Seox gave a sigh, disappointed. He thought that his talk would have to wait another day, but Ladiva smiled at him. With her typical motherly smile, she said “She will be back soon, though. Why don’t you wait? After all, there’s also someone that wants to talk to you.”

With that last part, Seox turned back to the entrance from where the sound of bell ringed again, and he found Djeeta staring at the group. She was carrying a bag, hesitant to enter the bar, “Uh, am I interrupting something? I can always come back later.”

“Oh, not at all,” said Ladiva cheerfully, “We are waiting for Phoebe to come back, but we’ve got some time to kill before that. Why don’t you take a seat? I’ll come back with your favorite juice in the meantime~.”

“Thanks a bunch, Ladiva,” Djeeta waved to the woman going back to the kitchen. She turned her head to Seox, that was still staring at the bag, “Hey, I want to talk to you. Do you have time?”

Seox nodded and invited her to sit together in one of the tables nearby, Morphe taking the opportunity to go help Ladiva at the other part of the establishment. He waited until Djeeta could talk about what she wanted, but he noticed how she was hesitant to even start a conversation at that time. Those gestures were common to him, not her. Looking at some random point that wasn’t the face of the other person, eyes trying to think about an ice breaker, anything that could help with the anxiety. It was especially strong back when he was still getting used to not have his mask on his face. 

“Is something wrong?” He asked, “Are you sick? We can ask Shao to bring medicine--”

“Oh no, don’t worry!” She waved her hands quickly. “Sorry, it’s just because a coincidence happened, one after another, and stuff happened too and…”

“Djeeta,” he said, voice calm, “Breathe a little. You’re talking too fast. What do you want to talk to me?”

She did as he asked and after three sessions of breathing, she said, “Are you having some dreams of memories you never had?”

That was very direct. It was quite a coincidence indeed, because that was one of the subjects he wanted to talk about with her, but… “Yes. I didn’t mention it because…”

“Because they were weird, right?” a pause, “Wait, I don’t mean weird in the bad sense, but I meant that it never happened and while I wanted them to happen a lot, we can’t change the past, even though those dreams were really good and… I’m babbling, aren’t I?”

“You are,” his voice was amused, all things considered.

“OK, then I’ll go to the point,” she took her bag and pushed in his direction, “This is for you! It isn’t the same as what I gave in those dreams, but I… Well, I tried my best!”

Seox took the bag, confused. Her face was flushed, not much different from his own at that moment. The bag was not heavy and once he finally got the contents outside, her eyes were shining, waiting for a response, “A scarf?”

It wasn’t anything fancy. It was clearly made “at home” and in his style. It was a black scarf with gray lines at both the beginning and the end. And with a little more attention, he noticed a small wolf carefully woven into the fabric.

It was really cute. Not that he would ever say this out loud, “For me?”

She nodded again, a smile from ear to ear, “They aren’t the same as gauntlets, so I don’t know how useful they will be. But I noticed you’ve been feeling cold lately, probably because we are going to another Skydom, so I…”

He couldn’t hear much of what she said afterwards. The scarf was not good, from an aesthetic standpoint. Some parts were let loose and if he wasn’t careful, it could tear apart easily enough. Sierokarte wouldn’t sell that for much money, most likely.

And yet it was enough to make his heart flutter. Before he noticed it, the scarf was already on his neck, doing its job to make it warm.

“Oh, I’m relieved,” she said, “You weren’t saying anything, so I thought you disliked it.”

“No… it wasn’t that. T.. thank you,” the words were difficult to leave, “Is this why you spent the last night awake?”

“In my defense, I only went to bed late! But yes, that’s why. I’m glad you liked it,” she paused and her tone of voice was more serious now, somber, “I know I said those things in a dream, but I meant it in real life as well, you know? Back when you told me the story of my father.”

He didn’t know to respond to that, not when he was still trying to form enough words to thank her for the gift. But he still tried, “It.. wasn’t anything that great. I did what anyone would do.”

“Hn, even so. It helped much more than you can imagine. A scarf is not enough to show my gratitude, but I hope one day I can convey it better.”

Seox felt Djeeta’s hand on his cheek, warm and inviting just like the atmosphere surrounding her. What she just said, it was actually the opposite. It wasn’t as if she had to give him gratitude, it was him that needed to do that, to show how much her presence saved him from the negative spiral of remembrances that were together with him every day. He could feel the frustration rising, for being unable to say that. All he could do was to touch the hand that was caressing his cheek, and feel how much cold it has gotten. But he didn’t mind a bit.

A loud sound nearby made both of them jump. The small yell that came afterwards was from a voice that the both of them knew very well, and once they were up to see who got hurt, it was a face of someone that seemed to try to run from the place only to stumble over her own feet.

“Phoebe?!” Djeeta exclaimed, “Are you OK? That probably hurt--”

“I’m sorry!” Said the younger girl, “I didn’t want to interrupt, I’m just gonna--!”

“Wait, Phoebe!”

Seox tried to call the girl but it was useless, she was already running to outside of Raduga, with two people running after her, leaving behind a mortified Morphe and Ladiva, that was trying hard to not laugh out loud out of respect to the people involved.

-*-

“So, you were the one manipulating our dreams in those last couple of days…”

Catching up to a small girl that was a Primal Beast was harder than both of them thought. She was tiny, and could easily go inside of places that were too difficult to be followed by teenagers, much less young adults at that. 

Fortunately for everyone involved, Lyria was nearby and managed to catch Phoebe’s hand, stopping her. Vyrn was yelling something about broken plates and a lost apple pie, but as far as everyone was concerned, nothing of value was lost.

Djeeta asked for Lyria and Vyrn to go somewhere else, maybe to play together with Sara, because that was a personal subject to Phoebe. They agreed, and that was what resulted in the current scene of the three of them sitting on the bed inside of Phoebe’s room.

“Y-yes,” she answered the previous statement, “I’ve heard about Seox’s story from miss Rosetta and thought that maybe I could do something to make it better…”

“Oh, Phoebe,” said Djeeta, giving her a slow headpat, “And why did you try to run away from us? Did you think we were angry?”

“You.. you aren’t?”

“I wanted to ask you about it,” said Seox, “but I wasn’t angry. Quite the contrary, it was a pleasant dream. But the repetition was not normal. Anyone would be curious.”

“See, he has a mean face but he wouldn’t be angry at you,” said Djeeta in a teasing tone, “He is too nice for that.”

Seox didn’t know if he should be annoyed at the comment about his face or satisfied over Djeeta thinking he was nice. He decided to go for the second option, “Next time you want to help someone, maybe ask them first?”

“Hn!” Phoebe nodded, with small tears in her eyes. It didn’t look like tears of sadness, thankfully. “I won’t repeat it, starting tonight, I promise!”

A beat.

“Aaahhh, wait wait,” said Djeeta, “Can we ask you for just one last dream?”

Phoebe tilted her head, “Huh?”

Djeeta looked at Seox with a pleading expression. He sighed, but he wasn’t exactly against it, “Just another one.”

“Yay! Try to conjure some cake! Oh, wait, Vyrn is having those dreams too, right? So maybe one apple pie as an apology…”

In the end, there wasn’t any apple pie. But the playground that turned out to be on the grass of Zinkerstill was one of the most peaceful dreams those three had in a long time.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you very much for being my beta, Dreizehn!
> 
> Some notes:
> 
> 1) Seox's real name means "star" in chinese (and it had the same meaning in-universe as well), so the scene of stargazing had Djeeta remembering this detail about his name;  
> 2) There's a part in Zinkerstill that had its entrance forbidden for everyone but mikos iirc. It's explained better in the main quest. Vyrn recover parts of his memories/powers over there;  
> 3) This one has really small spoilers for the main quest. Aaron is a childhood friend that was originally from the anime. He had a small cameo recently so I guess he is canon now. Didn't write a lot about him because I didn't watch the episode with him, whoops?
> 
> Do you guys understand how it is to like a pairing for two years only for the main writers give you an event out of nowhere that validated every headcanon you ever had?


End file.
